The X Factor (UK series 9)
Finalists Results summary ;Colour key Live Shows Week 1 (6/7 October) *Theme: Songs inspired by the Olympic Games (billed as "heroes night") *Special guests: Olympians Laura Trott, Lizzie Armitstead, Danielle King, Joanna Rowsell, Nicola Adams, Luke Campbell, Jade Jones, Tom James, Pete Reed, Alex Gregory and Charlotte Dujardin appeared as guests in the audience. *Group performance: "Read All About It (Pt. III)" *Musical guests: Leona Lewis ("Trouble") and Ne-Yo ("Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)") The result of the wildcard vote was revealed before the performances, with Christopher Maloney announced as the winner. ;Judges' votes to eliminate * Scherzinger: Carolynne Poole – backed her own act, Rylan Clark, stating that she "believes in him" * Barlow: Rylan Clark – backed his own act, Carolynne Poole, stating that the decision was "easy" * Contostavlos: Rylan Clark – stated that she loved Rylan "with all her heart" but made her decision based on the vocal performance in the final showdown * Walsh: Carolynne Poole – said that he loved both acts, and said he wanted to "keep Carolynne", but when O'Leary asked him if that meant he was sending home Clark, he said he wanted to save them both and then chose to take the vote to deadlock With the acts in the bottom two receiving two votes each, the result was deadlocked and reverted to the earlier public vote. Poole was eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes. Week 2 (13/14 October) *Theme: "Love and heartbreak" *Group performance: "Somebody That I Used to Know" *Musical guests: Rebecca Ferguson ("Backtrack") and Taylor Swift ("We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together") ;Judges' votes to eliminate * Walsh: Melanie Masson – backed his own act, District3 * Contostavlos: Melanie Masson – stated her heart lay with District3 * Barlow: District3 – backed his own act, Melanie Masson * Scherzinger: District3 – felt Masson wanted it more With the acts in the bottom two receiving two votes each, the result was deadlocked and reverted to the earlier public vote. Masson was eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes. Week 3 (20/21 October) *Theme: Club classics *Group performance: "Ain't Nobody" *Musical guests: Labrinth featuring Emeli Sandé ("Beneath Your Beautiful") and JLS ("Hottest Girl in the World") ;Judges' votes to eliminate * Walsh: Kye Sones – backed his own act, MK1 * Barlow: MK1 – backed his own act, Kye Sones * Scherzinger: MK1 – based on performance in the final showdown * Contostavlos: Kye Sones – felt she had a better connection with MK1 due to their similarity to her own band N-Dubz With the acts in the bottom two receiving two votes each, the result was deadlocked and reverted to the earlier public vote. MK1 were eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes. Week 4 (27/28 October) *Theme: Halloween *Guest mentor: Robbie Williams gave advice to some contestants during rehearsals *Group performance: "Without You" *Musical guests: Fun. ("We Are Young") and Robbie Williams ("Candy") ;Judges' votes to eliminate * Walsh: Jade Ellis – backed his own act, Union J * Contostavlos: Union J – backed her own act, Jade Ellis * Scherzinger: Jade Ellis – thought that Union J had been better performers overall * Barlow: Jade Ellis – wondered if she had the desire to succeed in the competition, and stated he was excited about where Union J could go in the future Week 5 (3/4 November) *Theme: Number-ones *Guest mentors: Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal from No Doubt gave advice to some contestants during rehearsals *Group performance: "Good Time" *Musical guests: Rita Ora ("Shine Ya Light") and No Doubt ("Looking Hot") On 3 November 2012, it was announced that Spraggan withdrew from the competition due to illness. She was not replaced and the elimination went ahead as normal. ;Judges' votes to eliminate * Scherzinger: Kye Sones – backed her own act, Rylan Clark * Barlow: Rylan Clark – backed his own act, Kye Sones, and stated that he was better in the final showdown * Walsh: Rylan Clark – stated he was doing "the right thing" * Contostavlos: Kye Sones – stated she looked forward to seeing Clark more With the acts in the bottom two receiving two votes each, the result was deadlocked and reverted to the earlier public vote. Sones was eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes. Week 6 (10/11 November) *Theme: Best of British *Group performance: "Beautiful Day" *Musical guests: **Saturday: One Direction ("Little Things") **Sunday: Little Mix ("DNA") and Ed Sheeran ("Give Me Love") ;Judges' votes to eliminate * Walsh refused to send home either of his acts, saying that he could not choose between them and would accept the decision of the other judges * Barlow: District3 – based on the final showdown performance * Scherzinger: District3 – felt that Union J were more mature and had more chance of long-term success * Contostavlos was not required to vote since there was already a majority, but confirmed she would have eliminated Union J Week 7 (17/18 November) *Theme: Guilty pleasures *Group performance: "Young" *Musical guests: Olly Murs ("Troublemaker") and Alicia Keys ("Girl on Fire") ;Judges' votes to eliminate *Contostavlos: Christopher Maloney – gave no reason but said it was obvious and effectively backed her own act, Ella Henderson *Scherzinger: Ella Henderson – thought that based on the sing-off alone Christopher was better. *Walsh: Chstopher Maloney – gave no specific reason, though said that Henderson was a "ready-made" recording artist and Henderson had more potential *Barlow: Ella Henderson – Backed his own act, Christopher Maloney With the acts in the bottom two receiving two votes each, the result was deadlocked and reverted to the earlier public vote. Henderson was eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes. Week 8 (24/25 November) *Themes: Songs by ABBA; Motown *Group performance: "Viva la Vida" *Musical guests: Bruno Mars ("Locked Out of Heaven") and Rihanna ("Diamonds") For the first time this series, each contestant performed two songs. ;Judges' votes to eliminate *Scherzinger: Union J – backed her own act, Rylan Clark *Walsh: Rylan Clark – based on the final showdown performances, effectively backing his own act, Union J *Barlow: Rylan Clark – gave no specific reason, but commended both for their final showdown performances *Contostavlos: Rylan Clark – felt Union J had more potential to sell records Week 9: Semi-final (1/2 December) *Themes: Songs for someone special (billed as "songs for you"); "songs to get you to the final" (no theme) *Group performance: "Merry Christmas Baby" (with Rod Stewart) *Musical guests: Tulisa Contostavlos ("Sight of You") and Pink ("Try") The semi-final did not feature a final showdown and instead the act with the fewest public votes, Union J, were automatically eliminated. After their elimination, Union J reprised their week 5 performance of "Love Story". Week 10 (8/9 December) The final, held at Manchester Central, consisted of two two-hour episodes on 8 and 9 December. ;8 December *Themes: No theme; mentor duets *Group performance: "Gangnam Style" / "Payphone" / "Titanium" / "Spectrum (Say My Name)" / "Read All About It, Pt. III" (all finalists except MK1) *Musical guests: Kelly Clarkson ("Breakaway"), Rita Ora ("R.I.P." / "How We Do (Party)") and Kylie Minogue ("Can't Get You Out of My Head") ;9 December *Themes: Favourite performance ("song of the series"); winner's single *Group performance: "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" / "Last Christmas" / "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (all finalists except Christopher Maloney, MK1 and Lucy Spraggan) *Musical guests: One Direction ("Kiss You"), Emeli Sandé ("Clown") and Rihanna ("Stay" / "We Found Love")